Nov 6, 2013

White evangelical's opinions on the civil rights of gays and lesbians

Polling shows a significant number of self-identified white evangelicals dissent from what the most prominent leaders have said is the biblical Christian position on marriage. Among white evangelicals, there's a minority that supports legal recognition of same-sex relationships:

26 percent support same-sex marriage

23 percent think Americans should be able to sponsor same-sex spouses for citizenship

30 percent think the federal government should recognize same-sex marriages

This is not a minority opinion if one looks at white evangelicals under 35. Among that younger cohort, 51 percent support same-sex marriage.

There may be more that support civil unions, but the poll did not ask about civil unions. White evangelical support for legal protections of homosexuals is stronger when the issue does not involve marriage. Rates of support for other issues are higher:

31 percent support allowing same-sex couples to adopt

59 percent support protection against job discrimination for gays and lesbians

65 percent support protection against job discrimination for transgender people

A separate poll looked specifically at Ohio and found very similar numbers there, on the state level, as are seen nationally. This is significant in that indicates the differences are likely not regional. Ohio isn't the Bible belt, but neither is it Oregon or Massachusetts. Among self-identified white evangelicals in Ohio:

25 percent support amending the state constitution to allow same-sex marriage

30 percent support same-sex marriage

56 percent support protection against job discrimination for gays and lesbians

Interestingly, among all Americans, 44 percent say homosexual sex is a sin and yet, at the same time, that gay and lesbian relationships should be socially acceptable.

That's a position one doesn't hear represented often in the public debate over these things. The variety of beliefs and opinions, "on the ground," so to speak, is varied, nuanced, and would appear to involve tensions not normally spoken of in the national debate.

Daniel Silliman teaches American religion and culture at the University of Heidelberg. His research interests include American evangelicals and pentecostals, book history, atheism and secularity.

Silliman has a B.A. in philosophy from Hillsdale College and an M.A. in American Studies from the University of Tübingen. He is currently working on his doctoral dissertation at Heidelberg on the representations of belief in contemporary evangelical fiction.

He previously worked as a reporter for a metro Atlanta newspaper, where he wrote about crime.

Francis Schaeffer's 1982 message to the Presbyterians at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was pretty simple: the philosophy of modern society is humanism, and humanism means death.